& Does The Spirit World have a sense of humour?
Part two of our “Dead-Happy” series
So, to set the scene, it was the Summer of 2018 and I was living with my then 19 year old daughter Stephanie in Pasadena, California.
My mind had already been recently “expanded” following my first ever visit to see the Medium, Susan Grau in May of 2018. (see elevated-planet-inspiration blog)
The Susan Grau experience had sent my 58 year old, “left-brain, westernised version of reality” reeling, but it had been replaced by something far more comforting. I now realised death did not exist in the way I had envisaged. I had always assumed that death meant the end, I now realised without a shadow of doubt that it did not. It was a very weird, but uplifting sensation. My mum, who died in 1981 knew everything about my life, as did John my ex-Father-in-Law who had passed in 2016. They were there with us always! But still, I couldn’t see them.
Now, if I meditated and focused upon them I would get this energetic tingling feeling running through my body, but was that just my over active imagination, or some message that they were here with me? Interestingly, immediately following my Reading with Susan, we went into her front office. Susan had suggested that John, my ex-Father-in-Law (who was very strong in Spirit) show us his orb on the camera, and to prove it was him, for his orb to travel through my body.
Susan had her camera set up so I could watch the screen which could pick up energy forms unseen by the naked eye (the same is true of many digital cameras). For a while nothing happened, Susan said with a laugh, “they don’t know you’ve changed rooms yet”. Then a couple of seconds later, there they were. A bunch of tiny orbs travelled through the wall from the room in which we had a Reading, they darted around, then one of them passed straight through me! Wow! Was I witnessing my metaphysical family in orb form? It would seem so? It was very moving, bizarre and a little bit amusing.
At that moment my inner sceptic was seriously struggling to find a place to hide. I knew there was no going back now. I couldn’t unhear what I had heard, or un-see what I had seen, and now, neither did I want to!
Anyway, back to Pasadena.
One thing my daughter and I had done since our Mediumship experiences, was to construct a colourful, fun shrine in our apartment, which included pictures and items that connected us to our “metaphysical family”. This was where I would meditate. I also found myself in a (seeming) one way conversation with them on a regular basis. It definitely felt good to talk to them, now that I realised that they were actually there!
Anyway, it was a Saturday and I was to travel 40 miles to meet Houda and her husband down In Costa Mesa, Orange County. Houda was a Moroccan lady I had met through my work in international banking. I was really interested in her small business, importing artisan created crystal jewellery from Ametista-do-Sol in Brazil, a region with extensive Amethyst mines. Every piece was hand-made & unique, and I loved the energy of these pieces. We were to meet for lunch at my fav restaurant, “Habana”, an atmospheric Cuban Restaurant. This would give me the opportunity to select a few pieces as gifts while enjoying Habana’s incredible Paella!
Joe Cocker: Hometown Hero!
Earlier that morning I had been reading a magazine my Dad had sent me from my home town of Sheffield, England, in which he had an article and photos published.
Immediately prior to Dads article was an extensive obituary honouring Sheffield’s late great Joe Cocker who passed away in 2014.
As a collector of vinyl records I mused over the fact that I had none of Joe’s albums in my collection, and maybe I should put that to rights! This was one of those “one way conversations” I had with our metaphysical family around our Shrine!
The Habana Restaurant is at The LAB (Little American Business-park), which is a kind of hippy hang-out with a great vibe.
At The LAB, they have my all-time favourite vinyl record stall, “Creme Tangerine”. I always enjoyed musing through their stock in search of a nostalgic treasure to add to my collection. It didn’t carry a lot of stock as it was based in an Airstream Trailer (a caravan to us Brits), but, while unlikely I thought I’d check to see if they might have a Joe Cocker album for me to buy.
Having parked up at the LAB a few minutes early for the lunch booking, I made straight for the record store to see if I could “find Joe”. What I saw made me laugh out loud. The records were as always, in the record bins in alphabetical order for me to search through. They also had four randomly selected records on public display above the record bins. The four on display that day included Def Leppard, Human League and Joe Cocker, all from Sheffield!
For perspective, Costa Mesa is 5,333 miles from Sheffield (according to Google Maps). While Sheffield has a rich musical heritage, it would be difficult to imagine why on a different continent, three out of four records on display should all be from Sheffield!
Anyway, it was time for lunch so after enjoying a good chuckle at the humour displayed by the universe, I decided to buy the album once lunch was done, then I’d look forward to playing it when I got back.
Habana’s Paella was awesome (as always) and I selected items from Houda’s jewellery collection and was very happy with my purchases. Over lunch I happened to mention a fun idea I had for a website entitled 4ever49, which would be about celebrating life for those of us aged 49, or those who simply wish we were 49 again once more. The whole thing was based on that tongue in cheek humour that went hand-in-hand with everything we would do.
I was surprised at how enthusiastic Houda was at the idea. In fact later that day she messaged me to say that 4ever49.life domain was available and I needed to buy it! I did as suggested and captured the site, and as of this week it now forms part of Elevated Planet.
After lunch I headed straight back to the record store to buy the Joe Cocker album, however, to my dismay it was gone! I couldn’t believe that while I had been at lunch someone had bought the one album I wanted! Then my disappointment was replaced with a second opportunity to publicly laugh out loud for a second time in two hours!
The reason I couldn’t see it was because they were actually playing the album! What are the chances?
What I’ve learned is that when we know to watch out for the signs, “they” are out there doing things to capture our attention and let us know they are with us. There is often humour attached within these messages, telling us life is here to be enjoyed, and not taken too seriously.
My daughter Stephanie got loads of these signs when her beloved Grandad passed, and it was her faith in seeing these as synchronicities or signs, not just coincidences that triggered off this journey that has now become Elevated Planet.
The sceptics have an easy way out, by explaining these things as everyday coincidences, when people want to believe it is something more. In other words, it’s a little delusional.
Meanwhile, Carl Jung published “An Acausal Connecting Principle” in 1952. He was intrigued from early in his career with coincidences, especially those surprising juxtapositions that scientific rationality could not adequately explain. He discussed these ideas with Albert Einstein and first used the term 'synchronicity' in a 1930 lecture, in reference to the unusual psychological insights generated from consulting the I Ching.
A long correspondence and friendship with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli stimulated a final, mature statement of Jung's thinking on synchronicity, together with a wealth of historical and contemporary material, this essay describes an astrological experiment Jung conducted to test his theory.
So… What did Carl Jung actually say about synchronicity?
Jung defined synchronicity as "the coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same meaning". Synchronicity is a cluster of meaningful patterns that normal cause and effect has not caused. Synchronicity is acausal. Beyond cause as we know it.
While I completely empathise with those that can only bring themselves to see “coincidences” (because that was previously “me too”), It is fair to say that those who accept synchronicity as real, are in very good company.
And if you believe in this, then how much else is there out there that defies “rational” explanation within mankind’s narrow definition of reality?
The reason I created “The Twiglet Zone” was to explain many of these fantastical truths that have unfolded to me over the last four years. You will find all these videos under our Elevated Planet YouTube channel. The Twiglet Zone.. Fantastical Stories accompanied by a Savoury Snack!
However, before you enter The Twiglet Zone, you need to be aware these will seriously test the boundaries of your reality! They exist to plant seeds in your mind, to create the curiosity to delve deeper.
If you dare.. Click the link to watch an episode..